


The Threshold Of A World Where We're Together

by Naomida



Series: Howl at the Moon [19]
Category: Fantastic Four, Invaders (Marvel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Apologies, Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 19:06:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18198152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naomida/pseuds/Naomida
Summary: There was a sort of fear that took people by their very soul and squeezed out everything that wasn’t absolute and utter fright and panic. That was what Reed felt when he opened his eyes with a start, a scream on the lips.





	The Threshold Of A World Where We're Together

There was a sort of fear that took people by their very soul and squeezed out everything that wasn’t absolute and utter fright and panic. That was what Reed felt when he opened his eyes with a start, a scream on the lips.

“Shhhh,” immediately soothed someone, and Reed, still confused and scared and in pain, frowned up at the almost unfamiliar face looking down at him, relaxing despite everything. “Please, don’t try to talk, you’re not fully healed,” he said, and Reed’s heart jumped in his throat, because not only Victor was here, as a _human_ , but his fingers were resting on Reed’s throat were all the pain was coming from in terrible waves. No squeezing or pressing or anything — his fingers were just there, touching his skin.

He swallowed his saliva with difficulty, more pain flaring at the movement, and tried to remember what had happened to him — how he had gotten here, in this pristine white room with his mate finally touching and looking at him, radiating love and warmth.

He couldn’t remember what had happened, except for the Marrok tearing his throat halfway out, and Victor screaming bloody murder in his head.

He shivered violently, and Victor’s other hand gently cupped his face.

“Shhh, don’t worry, we took care of everything. Loki managed to save you, you’ll be back to full health in a few days.”

Reed wanted to ask questions, like how Loki had managed that when Reed was pretty sure he had died for a moment there, and what had happened the everyone else, _to the Marrok_. There was no way he had let them live, and killing him would have probably taken several wolves dying in the process.

Victor’s thumb gently stroked his cheekbone, and all those worries flew from Reed’s head as he relaxed despite the pain and fear and felt his eyes growing heavier, hard to keep open.

“I’ll be here when you wake up next,” murmured Victor as he closed his eyes, “I promise I’m not leaving.”

Reed managed a weak “mmmh” before he was asleep again.

  


  


***

  


  


“He woke up,” announced Sue, walking into the giant living room.

Loki looked up from his knees, still looking like a deer in the headlights — a look that hadn’t left him since magic had surged all around him about a second before Reed was breathing again and Loki was jumping on the Marrok, still in his human form and smelling more than strongly of magic.

He hadn’t said much since then — three days already — but he relaxed and seemed to breathe easier after hearing the news.

Thor, who hadn’t left his side for even just a second, clasped his shoulder, and Sue was surprised when Loki didn’t flinch at the gesture.

“Victor is telling him what happened, I think we should give them a little more time before going to bother them.”

They both nodded without a word.

“Where are the others?”

“Ben took Johnny and Peter outside,” said Thor.

“Namor’s in bed.”

Sue paused on Loki, just for a second. It was his first words, and she didn’t know how to take it — didn’t know what to do about him, and Namor and Thor and Jim, who had called her in hysterics about five minutes after everything had happened, yelling at her to tell him what was happening and saying that he was on his way back and he was sorry.

Almost everyone had heard the beginning of that conversation, but she was pretty sure only Namor had really paid attention.

She sighed softly, and told herself that no matter what happened now couldn’t be worse that what had already gone down in front of their house. Or at least she hoped, because her pack was proving itself more than imaginative when it came to terrible issues, and she was really tired. Killing the Marrok had to be the worst thing they did, or she’d quit and go somewhere else — although she was pretty sure Johnny and Peter would follow wherever she went.

“I have to call Tony and Steve, but come to me if you need anything,” she said, to which Thor nodded, before leaving the room.

They were both Alphas and more powerful than her, but at least they were smart enough to know that letting her handle everything was the best thing to do.

  


  


***

  


  


“What do you mean you killed the Marrok ?” asked Reed, pulse so fast it hurt a little — even despite the fact that Victor’s hand was sprawled on his chest just over said pulse.

“He killed you, so I killed him,” replied Victor, like it was that simple, like the Marrok hadn’t been the most powerful werewolf of the continent. “I had Loki and Thor’s help,” added Victor, but Reed could feel that this wasn’t all — that Sue had probably done something too, but just in case someone would come after them he wasn’t about to say it.

“But if he’s dead then…”

Victor shrugged a shoulder, thumb gently running over his sternum, and when their gazes met time stopped for a second.

“Look,” whispered Victor, his green eyes so intense and so _human_ , Reed started shaking just from looking into them, “I might have hurt you more than anyone ever should have, and I might have lead you to believe that I don’t care about you as much as I really do, but it doesn’t change the fact that I would kill for you, and if anyone ever came to hurting you this badly again, I’d kill again, without question. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, _nothing_ , and I realize what it says about me, that I had to actually lose you to realize it, to finally accept that we’re mate and you’re mine, just like I’m yours, but if you’re willing to… to forgive me,” he paused then, voice wobbling, tears in his eyes. Reed sat up in the bed and cupped his face when Victor tried to look away, smiling softly because for the first time probably ever, he finally felt fully mated to Victor and could actually feel some echo of what Victor was feeling — and had felt when the Marrok had attacked, the utter fear and panic and the chilling calm of knowing that he would die too, but not before taking the Marrok with him.

“Of course I forgive you,” he whispered, feeling tears well up in his eyes too. “You’re _my mate_. I’ll always forgive you.”

Victor nodded, his adam’s apple bobbing as more tears appeared in his eyes, before he was wrapping his arms around Reed and burying his face against his shoulder, crying softly while Reed smiled and held him close.

Maybe dying had been the best thing he could have done.

  


  


***

  


  


Jim arrived in the middle of the night.

He blinked up at the building, knowing that his entire pack was in Stark’s penthouse, yet still feeling so far away from them. It had seemed so important to leave them to themselves and go spend time with Toro, back when he had made the decision, but he wasn’t so certain anymore — couldn’t be, when they had lost so much, even just for a second.

He swallowed his saliva with difficulty, and entered the building. He had no idea what Namor would say, how he would react, if he’d be mad at him, and not want to talk to him.

Jim would understand this kind of reaction. God knew he wouldn’t have taken it kindly had Namor been the one to go for so long, in retrospective.

He arrived at the penthouse in under two minutes, and found the entire floor dark and silent, so he just closed his eyes and let his hearing and smell to do work.

Ben was snoring softly on the master bed, along with Johnny and Peter and Loki and a wolf his nose remembered as Thor. Sue was in the bed with them, but still awake — she hadn’t slept much, knowing her, and the guilt stabbing him in the stomach was as surprising as it was violent. He had left her without her right hand man at a time where the pack was still trying to deal with Victor and Loki joining them. She must have felt so lonely, and lost at times, yet she had never reached out to him, and Jim, knowing her, knew that she would have never bothered him with anything that wasn’t life and death anyway. She knew what pack and family meant to him, because it meant the same to her, and she knew how messy and ugly things could get. She would have never jeopardize his chance at getting Toro back.

Jim cursed himself, for never reaching out to her and only thinking about himself.

He’d do better now. His pack deserved it.

Reed and Victor were both in another bedroom — which he had guessed before even setting foot in the neighborhood. He wouldn’t have let anyone come close to his mate either, had he been in their situation.

It only left one person, who was waiting in the living room, tapping his foot at regular interval against the carpeted floor, huffing from time to time.

Jim smiled despite himself and finally relaxed for the first time in almost four days, because he was close enough that he could feel his scent, and he was pissed as usual, and Jim _had missed him_. Some deep ache that had been lurking around his chest lifted as he started walking to him.

“You took your damn time,” said Namor just as Jim took one step into the living room, and the blond had to stop as he watched Namor get up from the couch and face him.

So beautiful.

Something primal curled around his guts, something warm and dangerous and old, something he had felt before, when spending time with the other werewolf, but never with this intensity.

Something he had learned to recognize as mate magic.

“I missed you,” breathed Jim, breath taken away when Namor snorted and started walking to him through the giant room.

“You should have thought about that before leaving me.”

“I did what I thought was best for me and Toro.”

“And where is he now?” asked Namor, stopping half a dozen steps away and crossing his arms with a frown.

Jim wanted to cross the space separating them and kiss the frown away, but he knew Namor by heart now and knew how poorly this would be taken.

“He’s with Bucky,” he replied instead, shrugging a shoulder. “I told them to go wherever and do whatever they want, my pack needs me more than they do.”

“So that’s what it took, huh.” There was something fragile about Namor. It was in the way his face had fallen, in the slouch of his shoulders, how his intense blue eyes seemed to be tearing up. His voice was tight, like he was trying to hold the words in — or maybe it was sobs and Jim just had to live with the fact that he was going to make Namor cry in front of him, and more than probably had already made him cry several times since leaving. “Reed had to die for you to come back.”

“I didn’t know things were this bad.”

“You know they were for me.”

Jim looked away, just for a second, shame a chocking weight in his chest.

He couldn’t lie to him though.

“You had Loki, you made that clear and I know you. You needed to spend time with him without me getting in the way.”

Namor’s mouth twisted in a grimace, and Jim knew that he was right, and Namor hated him a little for it.

“It doesn’t matter now, right?” he replied, sarcastic in a way he had never been with Jim before.

“No it doesn’t,” replied Jim, watching as Namor looked down, almost shyly, and wanting to smile because he knew that it was because of him and all the love currently chocking him up — all the love Namor was feeling coming off of him. “I missed you,” he said, taking a step up and stopping when Namor looked up at him, “I _really_ did, and I hope you can forgive me for leaving for such a long time.”

Namor just looked at him for a very long time, before sighing, his entire body sagging with it, and rolling eyes.

“Yeah, I’ll forgive you, just come here.”

Jim smiled and gladly joined him for a hug, something settling deep into his chest the moment he was holding onto Namor and had buried his nose into his hair, breathing him in.

“I missed you too,” he murmured after a long moment, and Jim squeezed him tighter.

There was so much he still wanted to say, like I’m sorry and I love you and I’ll never do anything like that to you ever again I promise and please mate me here and now I’m begging you I can’t live without you, not anymore.

He held him instead, and silently vowed to make it better — for Namor, and the entire pack. He was done not doing his job.

  


  


***

  


  


Reed smiled brightly when Jim entered what had been deemed as his bedroom.

Victor was sitting on a chair right next to the bed, face hard and arms crossed, but the strong smell of contentment drifting off of him was telling Jim that all this posturing was mostly for show and because he didn’t know how else to act.

It was almost cute.

“Hey, long time no see,” smiled Jim, taking care of staying far from the bed. “How do you feel ?”

“Better,” said Reed in the smallest voice ever — but then again his throat had been cut open from left to right, it was a miracle that he was still breathing. “I’m glad you’re back.”

“I’m glad to be back,” he replied. “And glad to see you Victor,” he added, eyes drifting to him.

Victor gave him a nod.

“Tell me all about your time away,” demanded Reed, gently patting the side of the bed, and Jim went to sit, keeping an eye on Victor while he told Reed about the crazy things he had seen during his long road trip.

It was good to be home, despite the fact that they were staying in Stark’s penthouse and despite the terrible circumstances. He still had to talk to Sue, and Namor, because despite their hug during the night he could feel an awkward tension between the two of them — but he had time. His Alpha and his mate weren’t about to disappear, and as long as he had his pack with him, everything would be alright.


End file.
